


On Prologues, Problems and Partial Truths

by Izamania



Series: The Gift of Spirits is Often Cruel [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-02
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:55:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25334236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Izamania/pseuds/Izamania
Summary: Prologue, non relevant backstory and bloopers for the rest of this series. You don’t have to read this to understand the rest. There will be spoilers you have been warned
Series: The Gift of Spirits is Often Cruel [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1795444





	1. Of Meng the Minstrel

**Author's Note:**

> It is worth saying that most of these are completely unedited and written at three am after too much earl grey tea. Some may show up later in the main work but yeah,

There is a small Inn in the Earth Kingdom. It is gold and green and has made a name for itself by being close to the front lines and always having entertainment.

Meng is playing tonight.

Meng is not her real name, because she cannot stand the accusations or pity that come from her real name, so she calls herself Meng to those who ask, and she is known as The Hummingbird to anyone else. 

Meng is fairly pretty, but she wears a scarf across her eyes.

_(some say it is to hide a scar, others say that she is blind)_

The truth is different as it so often is.

_(The truth is: Meng wears the scarf to hide the warm amber of her eyes. The truth is: Meng doesn't want to see the hatred or pity on peoples faces. The truth is: She is the scarf over her eyes as much as she is the elegantly carved Pipa. The truth is: It is easier to hide if you always wear a disguise.)_

Meng’s hair is a little too dark for the area of the Earth Kingdom she says she was born in, and her skin is a little too pale.

Tonight, she wears a loose kosode, and that puts her apart from the rest of the room because what honourable Earth Kingdom citizen would wear something from the _Fire Nation_.

Her hair is in a simple bun, with two long pins decorated with jade of red and green. The long beads fall like wings, and it is for them that she takes the name _Hummingbird_. 

Meng has not started yet, because she can feel in the low rumble of the Inn that they are not ready for a song yet. They haven’t noticed her yet.

There are three men in the Earth Kingdom uniform _(she can tell from the way they carry themselves, and the way air echos from the bronze and gold insignia)_ sitting quietly in a corner, avoiding the former Dai Li agent a few tables over. There are the regulars, quaffing and laughing, delicately avoiding talking about the war, because they don’t want to know the latest news yet. There are Fire Nation troops sitting in a corner, the Lieutenant nursing a cup of tea. There is a woman, dressed in an outdated kimono, whose hair is a little too still despite where she sits, and whose gaze is the purest liquid gold that Meng has ever seen.

_A spirit_

The woman _(spirit)_ inclines her head to Meng, and for a moment Meng sees fluffy orange-gold ears tipped with black. Then it is gone.

_When Meng was born as Kitagaki Iriko to a mother of fire and a father of earth, she was happy. She never bent either element though._

_She was not a child of the war in the way the pitying looks meant, and she was not a traitor in the way the accusational glances shouted._

_Meng was a survivor and a musician, and she was sent to the Home Islands when she was fifteen._

_She learnt how to sing from her mother, how to play the Pipa from her father, how to dance from Madame Yu Feng and how to tell stories from the Honourable Lady Aoyama Asami of Tokashiki._

_She learnt how to punch and throw a knife from the far less honourable disgraced former Captain Aowa, how to survive in the military from a no-name recruit who was three years older than her, but died a week later and how to just survive from a firebender who had burnt half her hand off to get out of active service._

_Meng learnt to stay out of the way of spirits after seeing a village destroyed by an angry yokai, and how to appease them by a scarred half-kitsune. She learnt how to write borderline treasonous songs, how to spin a spirit-tale that mirrored the events of the war a little too closely and how to create a catchy tune that would linger even after the song faded._

_Before leaving the Home Islands, Meng learnt four last things:_

_1) That Fire Lord Azulon and his sons didn’t care about the people_

_2) That Lady Ursa cared about her children, but was blind to the monster she left them with_

_3) That the newly crowned Fire Lord Ozai cared even less for his people than his father_

_And_

_4) That, three days after the Crown Prince’s Agni Kai, on the day that the_ Wani _left port, the flames in the throne room went out, and would not be relit._

_Meng was thirty, and she snuck onto a battleship headed for Omashu, filled with green recruits, and got the hell away from the Home Islands and the Agni-forsaken royal family._

Meng is now thirty seven, and she knows that less than a mile from the Inn, there is a Fire Nation army coming. She knows it by the whistle of wind over metal helmets and bamboo chest plates. She knows it by the finest specks of ash on the air.

Meng also knows that three miles further there is a house; abandoned when the Fire Nation came, and that wind hisses over and catches on spider-silk. She knows that inside the house there are cocoons trapping the servants and lord of the house. She knows that with the Dai Li hidden away in Ba Sing Se, the Fire Sages abandoned by Agni, the Shamans of the water tribes wiped out or hiding, and the Air Nomad priests dead, nobody can deal with the Jorōgumo that lurks within.

Meng met a Jorōgumo once.

She doesn't want to meet one again.

The Fire Nation Lieutenant looks over at her, and she sees, through the thin cloth of her scarf, that he is wearing a cowards mark, and Meng decides to be rebellious.

Her first song starts, and she knows that the Lieutenant recognises it from the way he stiffens slightly as she launches into the first verse of a bastardised version of a Fire Nation Army song, meant to boost morale. 

If her eyes were not covered, she would wink at him. But they are, so she does not.

Meng is proud, and she knows how to command a room, so it does not take long for the song to be picked up by the Inn. It does not take long until the Lieutenant’s face is stuck between horror and anger, and it does not take long until the spirit in the corner is smiling a wickedly sharp grin, and revealing a few too many canines for the human it is pretending to be.

Meng sings long into the night, alternating between classics, newer songs that are gaining speed in the Resistance, ballads and a few more songs that are a centimeter from treason.

By the end of the night, there is just the Lieutenant, the former Dai Li agent, and the spirit left.

It is the Lieutenant who approaches her first.

Meng takes off her scarf, and looks him in the eye, amber meeting amber, and relishes in the furrow to his brow as he meets her gaze.

“That's treason.” He says. His voice is broken, stretching itself around the common trading language in fits and starts.

She replies, “I know.”

“I could arrest you for it.”

“You won’t though.” She pauses, “You ran from battle. Capturing a traitor wouldn’t do anything other than sentencing you along with me.”

He flushes angrily, red splotches spider-webbing briefly on his face before fading away in acknowledgement.

“What division?”

“...41st.”

“Oh.” She pauses again, her eyes darting over to the spirit who is still smiling a little too wide and the former Dai Li agent who is flipping a Pai Sho tile into the air. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be - you didn’t do anything. That's on the Fire Lord.”

Meng is silent, because there is no reason to point out that the Fire Lord doesn't care, and the bitterness in the Lieutenant’s voice is intimately familiar to her.

He bows awkwardly, less ranking-officer-to-civilian and more ranking-officer-to-ranking-officer, and leaves, his left leg dragging slightly.

The spirit comes second, and it does not speak or bow or offer anything by a sense of petty victory and a branch of fresh wisteria, lilac blossoms opened and fragrant. Meng accepts, and bows, humble-servant-to-far-greater-power, because that is the only bow she knows that could fit.

Finally, there is the former Dai Li, a scar bisecting his face.

“The hawk flies at morning light.” His voice is thickly accented with Ba Sing Se.

“But the Hummingbird waits unseen” Her reply is as cryptic as his statement, and she inclines her head. “How goes the plan?”

“Well.”

“And the Lotus?”

“Still blind to us.” He hesitates for a second then continues, “You must go to Gaoling. Get into the Earth Rumble - play ‘The Day of Black Sun’ and ‘A Spirits Blessing’.”

Meng nods and the former Dai Li leaves.

There is a small Inn in the Earth Kingdom. It is gold and green and has made a name for itself by being close to the front lines and always having entertainment.

It is also a nest for spies and treason and rebellion.

And so, as the full moon blooms in the sky, washing out the surroundings, a woman with amber eyes, too pale skin and too black hair shoulders her Pipa and sets out for Gaoling


	2. On Ursa

It is a bright boiling day, and the sun is at its zenith when Lady Ursa is born to a family standing at the very edge of that cliff that is nobility.

Her father is a master firebender and her mother can burn a single leaf on a tree from three hundred paces.

Her father is human in all the ways her mother is not.

Agni shone down on Ursa when she was born, and her eyes were not the unformed blue of infants, but a murky gold. 

When she is six, she bends for the first time; a thin stream of flame that sputters and fades and burns her - just a little. Her parents applaud and there is a celebration that leaves their meals frugal and a kitchen maid vanishing for a month after.

They cannot afford a respectable school, so three tutors are hired for Ursa; the respectable Lady Xiao Mei, exalted Master Daishi and a former General by the name of Fujiko.

Lady Xiao Mei was born in Omashu to Xiao Li and Xiao Yunmei. She had soft black hair kept up in elaborately simple styles, and was a master at subtle manipulation and soft power.

Master Daishi was an Imperial Firebender who owed a favour to Lady Hinako; Ursa’s mother. He was brash and rude, but bent like breathing.

And former General Fujiko who had left the council after the deaths of the 12th division. She wore a white sash at all times, and knew a little too much about the more _hidden_ parts of Fire Nation history and geography than that which was strictly safe under Fire Lord Azulon.

It is perhaps time to describe Lady Hinako and Lord Fujio. Lady Hinako has long black hair and eyes of the truest liquid gold. She wears loose robes and is skilled with swords as well as fire. Her pupils are a little too thin and she is always a little too warm and _present_ for her stature. She is a poet and an artist and spends hours under the purple and lilac wisteria in the garden. She is docile; in the way that a sleeping tiger-dillo seems harmless.

Lord Fujio is tall and always dresses in the latest fashions. He is a merchant, and people go to him for china and silk but the taxes on _luxury products_ have risen to become near impossible. The Fire Lord says that it is for the betterment of the nation, but Lord Fujio knows that the palace added another shrine on Rishiri Island in honour of the fall of Shandao and its King, Xue Chun. He is polite and and sincere, and has never learnt any firebending beyond that required to become a master.

Ursa is twelve when she first goes to see Love Among The Dragons with her mother. She does not love it at first, but she slept through half the play the first time. Ursa loves linguistics and has already convinced Lady Xiao Mei to teach her the common tongue of the Earth Kingdom, as well as the common trade language. Ursa does _not_ love firebending. She cannot channel her hatred and fear into the aggressive kicks and punches the Imperial style demands, so she is still stuck half-way through the first kata and does anything to skip firebending lessons. 

It is one year before her mother leaves _(Ursa knows that she won't come back, because she was not-human and Fire Lord Azulon has forgotten what his wife is and who gave him firebending)_ when Lady Hinako gifts Ursa with a Dao sword. Ursa is delighted, and former General Fujiko gives her lessons when Master Daishi is away _(which is a lot now and Ursa finds a Pai Sho tile left on the table in one of the rooms)_. She puts a lot of effort into her swords until she can slice a single grain of rice in half _(but that is not yet, as she stumbles through the simple forms and breathing exercises)_.

It is two days before Ursa is thirteen when her mother bows low to her and kisses her on the forehead. She smells like old paper and ink with a tracery of fire and woodsmoke and it is the last time Ursa sees her mother. 

Lady Hinako is going to Caldera City at the request of General Shōko, her honoured sister-in-law.

Ursa has only seen her aunt twice, and she is just as imposing now as she was then.

General Shōko always has her hair in a low knot, and wears the armour of a high ranking official, complete with the gold flame insignia on her chest. Her left eye is a dull yellow-bronze dotted with amber orange, and her right eye is a milky white; and a jagged, stuttering scar crosses it; the relic from a failed assasination of the Fire Lord. 

General Shōko smiles at Ursa sadly and ruffles her hair before leaving with Lady Hinako.

Now Ursa is sixteen and the legal age of drafting and marriage. Her family is clinging onto nobility by a finger, and Ursa has had a bag with her favourite scrolls, money and some clothes packed for months.

Her father has drowned almost all their money on sake, rice wine and the expensive Earth Kingdom plum wine; there is nothing holding her back, but she cannot bring herself to say goodbye to her mother's wisteria.

She kneels before their shrine to Agni, and prays that she can leave and be important. She prays for her mother and herself; it is a ritual that has carried her along for years.

Later, she writes to General Shōko:

_Dearest Aunt,_

_It has been many years since I last saw the capital, and as I am now of the age of majority, I wish to move and leave the countryside of Okinawa for Caldera City. I would be deeply honoured if I could stay with you for a while._

_Your Niece,_

_Lady Ursa of Okinawa_

And she received a reply:

_My dearest Niece,_

_Of course you can stay with me! I would be delighted to host, the house has been awfully lonely without anyone around._

_Your honourable Aunt,_

_General Shōko of the exalted 78th division_

The letters are short because paper is expensive now - the workers who would normally make it are driven into military service, and it is counted as _luxury goods_.

And so it was that she said good-bye to her father and, one boat trip, five dragon-moose carriages and three days later she arrived in Caldera City.

General Shōko meets Ursa outside her house. She is less threatening now, Ursa thinks, but she is still imposing, even in a loose kosode with her hair in an icho-gaeshi. 

Ursa had been here once before; when she was seven.

It had been Fire Lady Ilah’s birthday, and there had been lanterns and a parade right past Ursa’s aunt’s house. Everything had been red and gold, and there were dancers in the parade who threw fire like water and leapt into the air as if they were airbending.

Her aunt’s house is a little fancier now, and it is colder than it was on that day, but Ursa cannot help gasping with joy at the city even as part of her mind screams that she is not a merchant or especially skilled in the political arts, and should just go home now. 

The palace is in view from General Shōko’s house, and even though Ursa can only see the upper floors and the trees that peek over the wall, she is in love.

It is a month later; when the rains begin, that Lord Kaito invites General Shōko to invite her to tsukimi celebration in the palace. It is a great honour, and Ursa accepts gratefully.

 _(Ursa, for all her knowledge and compassion, does_ not _respect Tui and what the moon represents.)_

  
  


It is the night of the party, with lanterns and candles shining in the dark when she meets the royal family. Perhaps _meet_ is a strong word. It is more that she _sees_ the royal family.

Fire Lord Azulon and Fire Lady Ilah sit upon the dais, as an advisor whispers frantically into Azulon’s ear and Ilah curtly orders more wine.

They do not seem like nice people, Ursa thinks. _(She is right but will not know this until later)_

As she hovers, a glass of wine in her hand, she glances over the people, reciting names, occupations and trivia in her head.

There, by that pillar, is Admiral Nozomi of the Northern Waters. She is eagerly talking about bonsai to Lieutenant Kazuhiro who looks to be about five seconds from drowning himself.

Over there is Crown Prince Iroh and his wife. They are debating the merits of tea with an elderly fire sage who is attempting to argue that Quilan is far superior to Ginseng. Ursa is only sixteen, so she dismisses the Crown Prince at first sight as having interesting conversation to offer and resumes her watching of the room.

_(In this regard, Ursa is a greater fool than anyone could ever think.)_

Her eyes glance over Lord Jiro who is apologising profusely to her aunt for some slight, and meet Prince Ozai’s across the room _(this is her first mistake)_. He inclines his glass to her with a smirk, and she blushes delicately.

They do not talk yet.

_(This is perhaps her second, as he did not change himself for her yet.)_

It is three years later and she is Prince Ozai’s guest at the celebration in honour of the birth of Crown Prince Iroh’s son.

They dance a little, then snipe idly at the more ridiculous and pompous nobles who are attempting to worm their way into the future Fire Lord’s favour. 

Ursa is kind, and loyal, but sometimes she is filled with an emotion that she cannot name _(it is anger, spite and hate; but Ursa is not-quite-human enough to recognise it)_ , when she is, she bends fire in the Imperial style with the skill of a master.

It is three years after that, and she is married to Prince Ozai in the middle of summer, on a day that rivals her birth for light and heat. She is now Princess Ursa, and she wishes her mother was here and that her new mother wouldn’t scowl so.

Sometimes, Ursa wishes Fire Lady Illah with all her sharp words and creased hands would just _drop dead_.

_(As it happens, Fire Lady Illah, may her name be honoured, dies on a wintery night, and Ursa_ smiles _at the funeral.)_

It is five years later, and now it is the middle of a storm, in the dead of winter, with no light but the guttering candles, and she is having her son.

She holds him alone; she has sent out the anxious nursemaids and bored family, and it is her alone who sees him for being not-human in the same way as her mother, with the same true liquid gold eyes and greater _there-ness (it is a mistake that she keeps this from everyone)_.

She also does not tell how he is born just before the sun drops from the sky, or how his first sight is not her, but Agni.

Her son does not scream or cry once, and her husband smiles at him. _(It is the last time he will smile at his son with anything resembling love)_

It is two years after that and she has a daughter. Like Ursa, the Princess Azula is born in the blazing heat of summer. Unlike Ursa, Azula is born as the moon drops from the sky, seconds before the sun rises. _(Ursa also keeps this from everyone.)_ Ursa looks at her and knows that she is the same not-human as her father, not her brother.

Her eyes are the blue of infancy and the fire she would later grow to weild, but for now, she is a screaming infant who won’t quiet when her father smiles _(it is pained)_ or Ursa shushes.

It is her son, Zuko who manages to quiet the proverbial dragon. He is two, and he holds his sister a little clumsily and talks to her almost nonsensically. Azula is silent, looking at her elder brother with wonder as he promises to protect her, and Ursa feels like she could burst from her love of this family she is a part of.

They are happy for four years.

Then it all starts going wrong. 

Ursa is back in Okinawa for the funeral of her aunt and father (killed by an Earth Kingdom assassin wanting revenge for the death of his father at General Shōko’s orders) when Azula first bends.

She is four.

_(Ursa does not see how Zuko laughs at the tiny flame she holds in her pudgy hands and congratulates her. Ursa does not see her daughter promise to alway protect and be there for him (it won’t always be truth).)_

Her son still hasn’t bent a tiny flame, and Ursa worries slightly because Ozai doesn't like imperfections in anything.

_(Ursa doesn't see how Ozai smiles a not-properly-happy smile at Azula and frowns slightly at his son. Ursa doesn’t see how he holds Zuko’s wrist and a flame flickers out burning Zuko. She doesn’t see how he hides it from everyone, along with countless spark-burns.)_

Zuko is eight when he bends for the first time, and when she first thinks _‘monster’_ at her daughter and husband. _(Azula had bribed a maid to try smothering her brother, and Ozai ignored Zuko as he eagerly showed off the tiny flame flickering in his hands.)_

Ursa is too often willfully blind, and far too trusting. She does not believe her son when he says the burns on his arm came from training and the cut on his face from playing with her swords, but she applies burn medicine and hires Piandao to teach him the Dao anyway. _(She is willing to believe that they can still be happy, against all odds.)_

She actively avoids her daughter and ignores how Azula tries to get her attention because she is _sick_ of the smell of burning flesh after going to the turtleduck pond when Azula was there. 

_(Ursa does not pay attention to what Ozai tells Azula, and this is her next mistake.)_

She avoids her husband and it is a _quietly visible_ fact that they sleep in separate rooms now. _(The servants very quietly tell their friends, until it is one of the best known secrets in the Fire Nation.)_

She leaves to visit Okinawa more and more and she hides from her son after her husband _talks_ to him and after he finishes firebending lessons because she can’t deal with the swell of what she thinks is guilt.

_(She is right.)_

Then Lu Ten dies.

Her son is devastated, her daughter quieter for a few days and her husband openly triumphant.

Iroh calls off the siege, and she cannot blame him.

He goes on a ‘Spiritual Journey’ and she wishes she could too.

Ursa is facing the realisation that she is no longer happy with everything she wanted. Agni’s light feels cold against her face, her favorite scrolls no longer entertain her, and she walks out of the room if her daughter or husband enter.

Ursa feels as bitter as Fire Lady Ilah, now passed, and she hates it.

_(She has felt hatred all too often to stay blind to it.)_

Her son is ten now, and her daughter eight.

She cannot approve of her daughter's friends, because they are friends in the same way that saber-toothed moose-lions aren’t dangerous.

She cannot approve of her son’s friends, because he has none.

Ursa is so very tired, but she loves her children so very much _(even though one is cruel and the other angry)_.

It is another bright, hot day, when Ursa feels as cold as ice, and she drags her daughter out of her son’s room and into her room, and Ursa sees how her daughter’s careful mask slips slightly and she says the words that haunt Ursa for the rest of the day;

“Dad’s gonna kill Zuko.”

_(Ursa feels like she could scream, at the matter of fact way Azula says it, and at the slight way her eyes are shining)_

Ursa always has a plan for the worst-case scenario, but somehow, this never even crossed her mind.

For the first time in years, Ursa willingly enters a room with her husband in. She sees the way Ozai stiffens slightly before continuing on with his calligraphy.

“You want to be Fire Lord.”

“Careful, _dearest_ , that's treasonous.” There is a smile carefully _not_ on his face, as he answers her.

“It’s the truth.” 

“And what of it? My... _honourable_ brother has first claim of the throne. It is as Agni wishes it.”

“What if Azulon was to _die_ , and name you as heir?”

“Wouldn’t work. I can’t hire someone to do it, and Iroh would suspect me.”

“I’ll do it.”

“You would?”

She inclines her head.

“In exchange for _what_ exactly?”

And that is how Ursa agrees to kill the Fire Lord, her honourable father, in exchange for her son’s life.

A prince for a Fire Lord is perhaps not fair, but Ozai wants the position enough to justify the gamble.

It is in the shrine to Agni in the palace when Ursa feels calmest, and it is where she goes now, Dao clasped in her hands, and paints in the box she carries.

She kneels before the polished obsidian, watches the smoky spiral of the incense for a second, then sends all the guards away. 

She dips the brush into the paint, and draws a circle on her forehead in gold, she swipes red under her eyes and over her lips, she paints her eyes black, and she prays. 

The sun has set when she stands and wipes the paint from her face, picks up the Dao, and walks out the shrine.

_(The guards stand aside for her, as she passes, the Dao held loosely in her hands, naked blades shining in the torchlight, and her hair hangs loosely. They are technically commiting treason, but Ursa is lit by a beam of sunlight that should not exist, and Azulon is hated much more than his sons.)_

_(They are the first to fall under Ozai’s rule.)_

Ursa is calm, and enters the throne room with a sea of probably-anger seething in her chest as she bows to Azulon, the Dao clasped in her hands.

He is old, and rises slower than Ursa moves.

He falls faster than her though.

She leaves the swords on the throne room floor, slick blood staining them and clenches her jaw and walks out; backlit by the guttering flames.

She throws up in a bush, then says goodbye to her children. _(She wakes up her son. She doesn’t wake up her daughter.)_

She walks out of the city, and down the path to the port, where she takes a boat and sails off, Tui watching over her, and Ursa is reminded that Tui is Agni’s sister.

The waters are calm, and Ursa counts the syllables in _treason_ to the stroke of her oars as she heads for anywhere that is not the Fire Nation.

She is the sole sunlit survivor of the sea that night. 


	3. Suki and Katara

The South Pole is a land of snow and ice. It is a water-filled desert coated in snow. It is thick ice and permafrost and rapidly cracking deceptive ravines. It is a land of gargantuan glaciers that rip and tear at the landscape, moving ice and snow and water with the steady flow of age and enormity. 

The moon may have been the first waterbender, but the glaciers were the second.

In the past, the South Pole was dotted with tribes. There were summer hunting grounds and winter campsites, there was a great school carved into the side of a slow moving glacier where waterbenders could train and the tribes could meet. It was an inhospitable land of snow and ice, and it was brimming with life.

Now, there is one small village, made immobile by the lack of waterbenders and hunters to carry tents and gather supplies. It is lucky, because there is a field of snowberries a mile away, and the snowberries attract skuas and squid-gulls. They are not good eating, but it is better than starving.

In the North, they say that there is a great wall that keeps out the malignant spirits and a thousand Angakkuq to destroy them if they get through.

In the South, there is one untrained waterbender who will never be able to learn the bending style of her tribe and one boy with a boomerang and his father's warpaint.

The snows are drenched in blood and ash, and it is not safe to go a few miles out of the village anymore.

%%%

At night, Katara saw the glowing lamps of the fox-fire that infested the land. If she squinted, a village was there, wall holding firm and it looked warm. It is a mirage of course, but there is no denying that the concept of other villages, of other waterbenders is immensely appealing.

She is alone here, escaping from what needs to be done to feel hollow and sad for a little.

It is hard to imagine them surviving the war now, but Katara will anyway. Gran-Gran says that the strongest thing to do can sometimes be as simple as hoping, so Katara, who is the last waterbender, resolves to hope. 

_Her village is dying and a blizzard is coming._

A shout for the healer echoes over the village to where Katara was perched on the wall, looking out over the icy tundra. She scrambled down, falling the last foot with a soft _oof_ , and ran out into the village where a crowd had gathered around Sohina, who had been out looking for her daughter. Sokka and Gran-Gran are already there, and Katara bit her lip in frustration.

“What happened?” She asks Sokka.

“Broke her leg. Katara, where's Ilannaq?”

“Why should I know! She went out fishing earlier.”

Sohina whimpered as her leg was moved slightly, and Katara saw how it had broken. Frantically she tried to remember what Ilannaq had been teaching her about healing.

_Even break, that's good. Needs splinting though…_

“Sokka, I need two straight sticks, and, and cloth. Oh, and can you get the stretcher from Ilannaq’s tent? Gran-Gran?”

Kanna nodded slightly as Sokka ran back to their tent. Sohina whimpered again and Katara knelt down by her.

“Sohina... Sohina you’re gonna be OK. We’re gonna splint your leg and then you’re gonna rest OK?” Katara was painfully aware of how panicked she was as Sokka came charging back, holding a broken spear and several strips of leather.

“This OK?” Sokka asked.

“Yeah.”

“Gran-Gran, do I need to re-align her leg?” 

“I think it is best that we splint her leg and get her inside before the blizzard hits. We can send someone out to find Ilannaq later if she does not return.” Kanna looked up at the sky anxiously. She was no waterbender, but she knew the ice of the north and south, and it spoke to her just a little. It said: _great storm-of-snow moves in from old school it wants to cover and is angry hide hide hide_

Katara winced similarly as she tightened one of the leather strips around the makeshift splint before deftly tying it into a knot. For her, the snow, water and ice all danced and called out that a great snow-storm was coming.

“Sokka; help me take Sohina in. Gran-Gran, can you light a fire?”

Kanna nodded and shuffled off as Katara and Sokka gently moved Sohina onto the makeshift stretcher Ilannaq kept in her tent at all times. 

%%%

They made it back just in time. A few minutes after Sohina was sitting up with her leg raised and her daughter anxiously tugging on her sleeve, the blizzard hit with devastating fury.

“This isn’t _right_. This blizzard just _started_ where the old waterbending school was.”

Sokka shivered slightly and edged closer to the fire at Katara’s words. 

“Oh what, did your _magic water_ tell you that?”

“Yes, and it's _not_ magic, Sokka!”

There was a long pause, broken only by Kanna’s audibly sarcastic eyebrow raise.

“...what do you mean anyway?” Sokka muttered reluctantly.

“It's not natural. It should be too warm for snow.”

“So it’s a spirit then.”

“I bloody hope it's not!”

“Language!” Kanna admonished, and both siblings muttered apologies before returning to gloomily staring at the fire.

Kanna sighed and stood up before adding salt to the soup that was bubbling over the fire.

“Shouldn’t be too long now.”

“I hope Ilannaq’s OK in this.” Katara said quietly and the three of them returned to the bubbling of the soup and the howl of snow-ridden winds over the prospect of losing more members of the tribe. 

%%%

The sun rose, pale and sickly over the village, refracting off the snow that laid thickly over the tents, hiding them from view.

Katara woke to Kanna shaking her urgently.

She wiggled out of her sleeping bag quickly at seeing the urgency in Kanna’s eyes and pulled her snow goggles on before poking Sokka awake and following Kanna outside the tent. 

“‘Tara?”

“Come _on_ Sokka.”

Sokka pushed the tent flap open and was met with a face full of snow for his troubles. Behind him, Katara sniggered.

“Oh.” Sokka said into the silence.

In the centre of the village was a spear of blue glacier ice, jagged and cutting the sky open. Quite literally in fact. Black shadows oozed from the edges of the ice spike and the tears in the frozen blue sky.

“Oh.” Katara echoed.

Carved into the base of the behemoth ice shard, in foot high letters, was the name Atka. Near frozen blood dripping slowly and inexorably down towards the icy ground.

Katara’s sharp flick of her wrist was less rational than instinctual, and the glacier ice bent around the blood, keeping it from touching the ground.

There was something in the bone-deep anger she could feel from the glacier ice that she desperately wanted to avoid.

“Gran-Gran, what do we do?” Her voice was quiet in the morning light as she turned warily to Kanna. 

“Pray to Tui for a sign and to La for strength. Then you will go to the old school and confront the source of this when the moon is high.” Kanna gestured to the glacier ice and the shifting black shadows that surrounded it. Katara nodded softly in recognition before hurrying off to get breakfast.

%%%  
  


Katara wore a mask of smooth leather and imported cotton from years ago. Rough wooden branches pulled the leather taut, and the blue-dyed cotton lay pasted over the top of it. Snow-raven and Skua feathers ornamented the top, and the mouth was drawn into an unfailing, unnatural, smile.

She was shaking quietly as she walked towards the glacier where the old school was.

It still remained, to some degree; three walls of ice with the water tribe symbol embossed upon them lingered, along with blocks of snow forming the base of an igloo, and the cairn that Kanna said once held feathers and carvings remained balanced upon the thick ice that served as floor.

There was a single carving on it still; a penguin-otter holding a smooth stone that was lovingly etched out of soapstone. Katara brushed her mittened hand over it softly before sitting cross legged in the ruins of the igloo, pulling her mittens off, and pulling a globe of snow to her and arcing it from hand to hand: _dance push pull flow water ice snow push pull pull push who is there push pull_

There is a woman wearing a mask the inverse to Katara's standing in front of her. It hangs loosely and red stains it unevenly. The mouth is downturned into a smooth frown, and the feathers are ragged and broken.

“What is your name?” The woman does not move, and Katara rises slowly to her feet, the snow she was bending with forgotten.

_i am of the south and i fought and died and lived and will have revenge because what good is family is community if they do not save you when you die they all look to themselves little hope too little i am atka and i have a story for you_

“Then tell it, Atka.”

_from the west came ships of metal and la did not warn us and i was netted captured given food enough to live and water enough to survive but i was chained and kept away from water i could bend and the sun shone merciless upon us and one escaped she was cunning and cruel and clever and then because if one could escape so could the others the fire children burnt us and turned us into ashes that they hid in great tombs of earth and it was because she escaped and she abandoned us she did not even try to save us as well and she was from here so i take my rightful revenge_

“What would you have me do?”

The woman - Atka removed her mask and stared at Katara with cold dead eyes.

“I would have you dead last hope. And then I would have the death of your village. For the crime of one is the crime of all, and _she betrayed us_.” Atka’s voice was cold and icy, like an unkind glacier.

Katara nodded once, her mind blanking for what to do, as she subconsciously ran water over her hand. A snow-raven watched from the cairn, dark eyes unblinking and beak cracked amusedly, showing alarmingly sharp teeth.

Atka struck out, : _fly go kill maim slash forward back now gently crush like iceberg you were/will be fall up down whip why won't she stay still_

Thin whips of water lashed out at Katara who _eeped_ and scrambled for cover, barely avoiding a hail of razor sharp shards of ice that thudded into the low wall of the igloo before rolling out and getting into the only stance she knew and lashing out with a stream of icy water that...went backwards. Katara flushed behind the mask and tried again with much the same result.

The raven stood up, and hopped over to Katara, who realised just how massive it really was, easily coming to her shoulder, and she froze in terror.

: _Hello Atka, Katara._

: _Atka. Stop._

: _I will help you rest in the ocean like you should be doing, and you will leave the village alone._

: _The misdeed of one is the misdeed of all; that is true, but just as the ocean does not forget, it forgives._

: _Katara, pull the ocean back_

“What? But it’s the ocean. I can’t bend the _entire ocean_!” Katara shouted before remembering that shouting at what was clearly a spirit maybe wasn’t a good idea.

: _No._

: _But I can._

“Tui?” Her voice cracked with astonishment as she stared at the enormous snow-raven, which let out an amused squark before shaking its head.

Atka got into a fluid stance that Katara had never seen before, but copied anyway, and the ghost and waterbender pulled back in time with the raven spirit, and Katara could feel an enormous wave swelling in her grasp. Her arms were shaking as she pulled against tide and time until the snow-raven blinked, and the wave went crashing down, miles upon miles away, on shores of clear sand and crystalline waters and one prison turned tomb.

Atka laughed before spinning viciously. She turned towards Katara who re-realised rather abruptly that Atka was a ghost, when her hands passed through Katara’s.

“I’ll go in peace if you get my revenge on _her_. ” Atka’s voice was bitter at the ‘her’, and Katara nodded with all the promise that a thirteen year old untrained waterbender could have.

Atka faded away.

Katara turned to look at the spirit who had been standing next to her only to find empty air and a single, enormous, feather spiralling downwards.

Numbly, she turned, pulling on her mittens and began the trek back to the village.

**_%%%_ **

Suki lived on an island that knew a thing or two about isolationism.

First, Kyoshi split the island from the mainland, and second, they’ve stayed out of this war as much as possible. 

So, aside from the North Pole, it’s fairly safe to say that Kyoshi islanders are masters of isolationism, _and everyone knows that_!

Didn’t stop the Avatar or his friends though.

Suki had a feeling that her eyebrows were going to become permanently raised as the water tribe boy kept on spouting sexist comment after sexist comment. She was starting to think he was blind, and so hadn’t noticed the _extremely sharp swords or fans_ carried by all her warriors. Because seriously?

So Suki fluttered her eyelashes, and, fighting down a wicked grin, asked the annoying water tribe boy to show her some moves.

He obliged, then she punched him, and threw him, and pinned him for good measure. The pinning was, in reflection, probably a bad idea because she was rather suddenly aware of how close they were and of how makeup really didn’t cover up blushing. _Damn it Kyoshi_.

But the water tribe boy whose name was Sokka made a terrible pun ( _were you guys Avatar Kyoshi’s biggest_ fans _or what_ ) then apologised for being a sexist pig, so Suki, who _was not blushing at all shut up Min_ agreed to teach him thing like _stance_ and _not to punch with your thumb inside your fist how are you not dead yet_.

He was better than his sister anyway. 

From what Min and Su Li said, she was alternating between jealousy and telling everyone in the damn village that the Fire Nation killed her mother and they should be fighting them. And sure, Suki understood, but the oldest warrior in the village was seventeen and Su Li, and Su Li didn’t come from territories the Earth Kingdom still held and was morbidly terrified of fire. So yeah. Suki knew about the Fire Nation, and Suki also knew that her village was built almost entirely of wood, and their primary weapons were fans. So no. Sorry Katara.

%%%

Sokka had been staring at Su Li’s swords for ages now, as they took a break for Sokka’s benefit. Poor dear was sweating like a prize pig-cow. She had to admit that Su Li’s swords were spectacular, a paired set of Tachi and Wakizashi that Su Li had _liberated_ from a Fire Nation naval officer by the name of Sugi Yorimune, who had thought that because Kyoshi island was neutral, it would be a nice easy target. Needless to say, Sugi had been wrong.

“Another round?” Suki offered, and Sokka groaned in response but stood up, stretched and fell into the baby stance quite easily.

“You wanna try with fans this time?” Suki asked playfully.

“Sure.” Sokka replied.

She walked over to one of the weapon racks and took a pair of blunted fans off before throwing them to Sokka with a grin and settling into a loose stance herself.

“So-Hyon? Referee.” She called out to the Kyoshi warrior who was sparring with Su Li on the other side of the dojo.

“Aww, Captain _must_ you steal So-yo?” Su Li called out teasingly, lowering her swords.

“Don’t call me that!” So-Hyon paused then smirked; “Li-li.”

“The _offence_! Do you talk to your elders like that So-yo?”

“You’re a year older than me Su.”

“And don’t you forget it you whippersnapper!”

“Girls, girls, you’re both pretty; you ever gonna join us So-Hyon?” Suki interrupted with a roll of her eyes.

So-Hyon bounced over to Suki and Sokka as Su Li stalked out for water.

“Aaand...GO!” 

Sokka spun forward with one fan outstretched, which Suki blocked on her arm guard and followed up with a kick that Sokka intercepted with his other fan. Suki flipped out the way and Sokka charged after her before _throwing_ one of his fans at her. Suki’s eyes widened and she ducked, hearing So-Hyon eep and the thud of the fan hitting the wall behind her only to be knocked flat by Sokka’s distracting other fan and less distracting but significantly more painful fist.

“How d'ya do that?” So-Hyon asked, eyes wide, “I _need_ to get Su Li with that.”

“Erm..Suki over balanced slightly after flipping so she focused more on the immediate threat, so she missed my _epic_ sneak attack.”

Suki snorted, “Hey, well done, you managed _not_ to yell ‘sneak attack’ before attacking.”

So-Hyon let out a bubbly laugh and Sokka rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

%%%

Su Li walked back in, scowling slightly and holding two cups of water, one of which she gave to So-Hyon before storming over to the bench and sitting down.

“What's the matter?”

“Stupid Avatar nearly got eaten by the stupid Unagi which managed to sink Seon’s boat.”

Suki joined Su Li in frowning.

“Whose this Seon guy? And why all the frowning?” Sokka gestured wildly, somehow managing to smudge the makeup that Suki had already redone twice. 

“Seon’s the watchman; sees if any unfriendly ships get past the Unagi. Most don’t so it shouldn't really be an issue, but...”

Suki trailed off, sharing a look of unease with the other three.

So-Hyon finished her water, coughed awkwardly and grabbed her bag from the bench.

“Where are you going So-yo?” Su Li glanced up.

“Peng’s. If Seon’s boat is down then Qin Yi’s gonna want me to help out with the repairs - Fire Nation raided off the shores of Emerald island a few days ago.”

Su Li nodded and went back to drinking her water as So-Hyon, bag slung over shoulder, walked out.

The somewhat awkward, somewhat comfortable silence was broken by Suki;

“Sokka, go through the Flying Lemur set again.”

From the beams in the ceiling, Momo chittered.

“You said it buddy.” He sighed and stepped into the first stance.

“You wanna be lower.” Su Li called out.

“The stupid skirt of your ‘warriors uniform’ keeps getting in the way!”

Suki snerked in much the same manner as Min had at seeing her blush over Sokka.

Su Li got to her feet and poked the back of Sokka’s knee with the sheath of Fēi dāo, her Wakizashi, until he lowered his stance sufficiently.

“Now go.” Su Li said.

Sokka blinked and stepped forwards into the second stance, fans open and pointing towards the door.

%%%  
  
“Aaand jump.” 

Sokka lept through the air on Suki’s command, looking less like a heron-eagle and more like a demented frog before landing rather heavily on the imported tatami mats and falling over after an incredibly brief moment of triumph.

Min, who was by now, the official queen of snerking, snerked, Suki blushed and Su Li paced nervously.

In short, it was a fairly normal day.

Except for Sokka trying to spin kick with fans effectively, and Min trying to play doudizhu with the lemur and Hua, who was a worse cheat than Min.

“You gonna ask her _this_ time Su Li?”

“Yes! Maybe...”

Min snerked again before placing a card on the table. At Hua’s smile, she immediately looked vaguely worried before snerking obnoxiously in return.

“Is it always this...” Sokka ended his sentence by flailing wildly. With pointy fans.

“Laid back? Yeah. Outside of training days, we don’t really do much besides patrol, help the chefs, hunt, or catch fish.” Hua shrugged and went back to smiling innocently at Min. Momo chittered and put a card on the table upside down.

So-Hyon burst through the door rather dramatically, paused and flopped on the tatami mats.

“So the Unagi really did a number on Seon’s boat this time.”

“Can’t he just take a fishing boat out or something?” Sokka queried, pausing in the middle of his form only to receive a pebble to the face from Suki. “Ow, Suuuki.” 

He drew out her name to assorted snerks and indifferent faces.

“Nope! The Unagi is a pain with regard to boats with fish on; it's why Peng’s is _always_ in business!” So-Hyon replied cheerfully.

Suki thought that sentences did not require multiple exclamation marks, but she kept that to herself aside from an incredulous stare at Su Li who blushed and started pacing faster.

Hua interrupted the next bout of near silence by flipping the makeshift table and storming out angrily.

“What happened?” Chorused through the room.

“The lemur won.” Min said dryly before sighing and following Hua out of the dojo.

Suki took the opportunity to snerk at Min’s retreating back. 

%%%

Suki didn’t really know how long it had been.

She rose with the bell that clanged through the prison signalling dawn, and she slept when she got back in her cell after the day.

The faintest scent of sulphur was eternally present, and Suki was so used to it that she hardly noticed it anymore.

Instead, she noticed how the other prisoners were distinctly human - most were prisoners of war, like Suki, and most of the others were political opponents who had gone a step too far. There were few real _monsters_ in the Boiling Rock, and those that were were kept away from the other prisoners.

One of the guards had been staring at her, and she had approached and asked why the guard was staring _(she hadn’t learnt which guards to avoid yet)_. 

“Beggin’ your pardon miss, but I have a daughter at home about your age. She’s goin’ out with a boy from Tomari, an’ I don’t think it’s right that your locked up in ‘ere, when you should be havin’ fun.” He said in a laboured and heavily accented version of the common trade language.

Suki hadn’t pointed out that she couldn’t because the Fire Nation were trying to take over the world, and the guard hadn’t mentioned the war either.

The guard captain said something in the incomprehensible language of the Fire Nation and thwacked him on the head as she walked past, raising an eyebrow at Suki.

It was another hot, bright day. Suki was sweating in her thin prison mandated uniform, and wishing that she had her fans or just a somewhat willing sparring partner.

They were lined up in the main hall, with some of the nastier guards patrolling to keep them in line. A spot between Suki’s shoulder blades was itching and she shuffled uncomfortably before returning her attention to the warden.

“Attention inmates. As the eclipse is today, all prisoners will be locked in your cells for most of the duration of the eclipse. If you try to escape; well, the Fire Lord has authorised deadly force.” The warden smiled and Suki _really_ wanted her fans; especially the ones Su Li had given her a few years ago, the ones with detachable knives to launch at people. Like the warden! And his eyes!  
Spirits Suki wanted to maim _someone_.

So Suki shuffled back to her cell in the line, returning the smile of one of the friendlier guards who tended to slip some prisoners food, before returning to the boring, rust spotted, walls of her cell for one hour and eight minutes. She counted.

Two days later, there were new prisoners delivered via tram. One man alternated between talking in the water tribe language and a broken version of the common trade language, demanding that he know where his men are.

_Oh...Betcha that's Sokka’s father. Neat, new ally._

It was a day later when she approached him. She knew a little water tribe, and was fluent enough in the common trade language.

“Hey, Hakoda right?”

“Yes, and who are you?” He looked at her with bemusement obvious on his face.

“Suki. I know your son.” She smiled, and shook his hand.


End file.
